Saturday 3 November 2007

Orange ladybirds





Here are the latest insects from the wood. I'd never seen these little chaps before but then, I'd never looked that closely before. They are orange ladybirds - much the same size as the well-known red ladybird but this lovely toffee colour with cream spots.


As you will see in this close-up, they are extremely cute. The black button eyes show up clearly against the lighter body giving it more character than is usual in insects. I particularly love what looks like a transparent shell around it - very outer-spacey. Ladybirds are well-known and welcomed for eating aphids but apparently these little chaps eat mildew!

1 comment:

Kate said...

how cool is that! I'd never seen those before.